Last November, the voters of New York City elected a new mayor, Bill de Blasio, to follow Michael Bloomberg’s 12 years in office. This represented a changing of the guard that we in New York take for granted. And yet the right of people to exercise choice in the voting booth is fundamental to our trust and confidence in our government. Nothing is more essential to a democracy than access to the ballot. Our founding documents speak of “We, the people” and representatives “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Barriers to voting threaten the very foundations of our democracy and weaken our government and our society. This year on Law Day, we reflect on why voting matters and we celebrate the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a half-century ago, landmark legislation that brought under the tent of American democracy so many people who had historically been excluded.
Black’s Law Dictionary defines democracy as a government “in which the sovereign power resides in and is exercised by the whole body of free citizens directly or indirectly through a system of representation.” The word has its roots in ancient Greece, where it meant “rule of the people.” Whether through direct participation or representation, a successful democracy reflects and accommodates the views of all its members, where the needs and concerns of the people are expressed through elections. Without the power to vote, we have little power to influence the direction of our government and the decisions made by our officials. Where an entire group is excluded, that loss of power is even more profound. The move toward universal suffrage in this country has meant far wider inclusion and stronger political voice for our diverse populations.
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